Williams College
Math/Stats/CS Mini-Conference/Reunion, June 8, 2008
20th Anniversary of NSF SMALL Undergraduate Research Project

1-2 pm  Welcome, introduction, invited speaker, Wege Auditorium
                Bethany McLean: "How Math Makes Me a Better Journalist" (half hour)
2:20-4:20 pm  Short talks in four parallel sessions, Bronfman 103-106 (see below)
4:45-5:30 pm  Invited speaker, Bronfman 106
                        Michael Hutchings: "How the Double Bubble Conjecture was Proved" (half hour)
5:30-6:30 pm Forum on value and future of SMALL, filling out surveys, Bronfman 106
7 pm  Dinner, with some remarks by faculty. Water Street Grill.

Algebra and Analysis, Bronfman 103  (Garrity presiding)

2:20  Mark Rothlisberger: "All About Wronskians"
2:40  Joe Rabinoff: "Another Application of Tropical Geometry to Number Theory"
3:00  Brian Wecht: "String Theory and Non-geometry"
3:20  Andrew Beveridge: "Random Sum Graphs"
3:40  Martin Hildebrand: "On Solving a 20-year-old Question in Probability"
4:00  Brent Yorgey: "Executable Mathematics: a Whirlwind Introduction to Haskell"

Teaching and Applications, Bronfman 104  (Welsh presiding)

2:20  Al Gerra: "Homeschooling A Young Math Talent, Advantages and Disadvantages"
2:40  Ted Welsh: "Teaching from the Brick: Math Lessons in Lego"
3:00  Jason Zimba: "What Math Should All Students Learn in High School?"
3:20  Hank Korth: "Multi-core and Multi-thread Processors"
3:40  Dan Robb: "How does a growing nanoparticle choose its shape?"
4:00  Matthew Hoffman: "Computing Currents: Oceanic Data Assimilation & LETKF"

Geometry, Bronfman 105 (Morgan presiding)

2:20 Joel Foisy: "On Graphs that Have Linkless Embeddings into Real Projective Space"
2:40  David Futer: "The Volume of the Space around a Knot"
3:00  Ivan Corwin: "Double Bubbles in Gauss Space"
3:20  Gary Lawlor: "Metacalibrations"
3:40  Quinn Maurmann: "Asymptotics of Perimeter-Minimizing Partitions"
4:00  Colin Carroll: "An Introduction to Equidistribution"

Groups and Dynamics. Bronfman 106 (Silva presiding)

2:20  Sarah Day: "Dynamical Systems and Computer-Assisted Proofs"
2:40  Alex Levin: "Dynamics of the p-adic Shift and Applications"
3:00  Thomas Koberda: "Dynamics and the geometrization of Haken manifolds"
3:20  Kirsten Wickelgren: "Schemes in Algebraic Geometry"
3:40  Brian Street: "Two-sided Convolution Operators"
4:00  Erich Muehlegger:  "Illegal Activity and Regulation in Diesel Fuel Markets”

Sponsored by National Science Foundation, Williams College, & Research Corporation